NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) discovered an enigmatic “ribbon” of energetic particles at the edge of our solar system and a new study says it may be just a glimpse into how vast the influence of the galactic magnetic field really is.

A newly-released NASA visualization shows the process of the sun’s magnetic field changing polarity, with the positive and negative poles switching throughout the course of the 22 year magnetic solar cycle.

Scientists at a massive underground particle detector in Antarctica called the IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory have detected high-energy neutrinos, ideal for the future of "extreme astronomy" because they can be used to detect the sources of cosmic rays and provide information about our universe's most violent and least-understood phenomena.

Researchers from Durham University in the UK are looking towards the stars for a method to reduce costs associated with carbon capture and storage – a process that could potentially mitigate contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming and ocean acidification.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a neutrino telescope that is currently being built at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. IceCube is being constructed in deep Antarctic ice by deploying thousands of PMTs (photomultiplier tubes) at depths of 4750 to 8000 feet. These spherical optical sensors are deployed on strings of sixty modules each, into holes melted by hot water drilling. Since 2005, 59 strings have been deployed and installation is expected to be complete by 2011. The strings are...

Gamma-Ray Astronomy -- Gamma-ray astronomy is the astronomical study of gamma rays.
Long before experiments could detect gamma rays emitted by cosmic sources, scientists had known that the universe should be producing these photons. Work by Feenberg and Primakoff in 1948, Hayakawa and Hutchinson in 1952, and, especially, Morrison in 1958 had led scientists to believe that a number of different processes which were occurring in the universe would result in gamma-ray emission.
These...

A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.